Monday, August 20, 2012

Educational Benefits of Juggling and Circus Skills

Please note that the words "juggling" and "circus skills" are
interchangeable on this page. The art of throwing objects in the air
such as balls, rings and clubs, as well as manipulating objects such as
diabolo, devil stick, spinning plates all offer the same benefits for
willing pupils!EDUCATIONAL BENEFITSImproves and Increases:

Mathematic Skills

Physics (newtons Laws etc)

Performance and Drama

Appreciation of the Arts

Techniques of Learning

Concentration

Imagination and Creativity

Problem Solving

Dyslexia

Cognitive Benefits - To
succeed in juggling, students must understand a pattern, set targets
for their throws and work on the rhythm and timing of their throws.The evidence for many Educational Benefits can be found in the book: Teaching Elementary Physical Education - by Robert P.Pangrazi.A great break in the daily routine
- During extensive academic work periods (such as daily lunch breaks
from work/studies), physically active study (such as juggling) can help
students return to their work/studies feeling refreshed and more
productive. Kinaesthetic and Physically active learners
will love to learn juggling especially! If you introduce juggling
breaks/intervals into your regular studies/school day, then you will see
these types of learners improve academically!Appreciation of the Arts
- Once you have seen how easy juggling is to learn the basics, then you
begin to see how many hundreds of thousands of tricks are out there for
you to master. Any time you see someone juggling, you then begin to
appreciate the amount of time and effort they will have put into
achieving such a routine! If students work on putting together a show at
the end of their workshop, they begin getting a small glimpse of what
it is like to work in the entertainment industry.Imagination and Creativity
- once you get involved with juggling, you can let your imagination run
wild and experiment with the tricks you have learned. You may end up
inventing a new trick, or even just a different way of achieving a trick
just by imagining different patterns and different routines that may be
possible!Good for your brain - Studies have
shown that people who challenge their brains and use them for complex
tasks throughout their life have a reduced incidence of alzheimers disease.Improves Student Behaviour
- Schools with juggling programmes tend to report quite satisfactorily
that student behaviour has improved amongst the pupils who tend to
create the most trouble.Helps Dyslexia - It has
long been thought that juggling can help disabilities such as dyslexia,
attention deficit disorders and hyperactivity. This is through the
knock-on effect of all the other benefits such as improved
concentration, problem solving etc.Problem Solving
- Students learn to break each juggling trick down into its small
component parts, learn each of the parts, then learn how to combine each
part to form the trick. If they get stuck at any particular point in
juggling, they can guarantee that someone more experienced will be able
to offer advice to help further.Juggling Can Boost Brain Power - Learning
to juggle can cause changes in the brain, scientists have found. Using
brain scans, the researchers showed that in 12 people who had learnt to
juggle, certain brain areas had grown. But three months later, during
which time people stopped juggling, the brain had gone back to its
normal size. To read more on this amazing discovery, please visit the
article on the BBC News Website.